ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 8, 1996 TAG: 9605080082
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
MEMO: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.
Police link killings of older women
RICHMOND - Only three or four slayings of older women among more than a dozen unsolved killings under investigation by a special task force appear related to each other, says Richmond Police Chief Jerry A. Oliver.
``There are three or four of these that look like the dots might be connected,'' Oliver said Monday to more than 120 Kiwanis Club members during a luncheon at the Virginia Historical Society.
The Golden Years task force - made up of city detectives and other law enforcement agents from the Richmond area - is investigating the unsolved killings of women 55 or older during the past decade.
Since August 1994, six women have been found strangled in their homes, and five of them had a connection to St. Mary's Hospital. Three were found in their bathtubs.
Oliver said the investigation cannot be jeopardized by releasing too many details.
- Associated Press
Wise-area papers file FOI charges
WISE - Three newspapers filed a lawsuit accusing the Wise County Board of Supervisors of violating Virginia's Freedom of Information Act by conducting a closed meeting of a budget committee.
The lawsuit was filed Monday in Wise County Circuit Court by the Bristol Herald Courier, the Kingsport Times-News and The Coalfield Progress. It asks the court to restrain the board and its committees from further FOIA violations and seeks civil penalties against four supervisors who participated in the meeting.
At its April 30 meeting, the committee barred the public and press by citing sections of Virginia's FOIA, then allegedly discussed topics that are not exempt from the act's open-meeting provisions, the papers say.
Randy Necessary, chairman of the county board, refused to comment on the lawsuit Tuesday.
- Associated Press
Police charge teen with killing woman
MANASSAS - A 15-year-old boy accused of fatally shooting a woman on Christmas Eve has been indicted on homicide and firearm charges by a Prince William County grand jury.
Prosecutors allege Malik C. Poleto, who was 14 at the time, shot 24-year-old Angel Hudgins in the head following an argument in her apartment.
Poleto, of Stafford County, will be tried as an adult, but no trial date has been set.
- Associated Press
Track coach faces voyeurism charges
PORTSMOUTH - Jurors will be allowed to hear the case of a former high school track coach charged with videotaping girls as they undressed in a locker room, a judge has ruled.
``What we're really talking about ... are laws against the sexual exploitation of children,'' Circuit Judge Norman Olitsky said. ``How in the world can I dismiss a case before hearing the facts of the case?''
The judge ruled Monday that dismissal motions related to 18 felony charges against John W. Crute would be reconsidered after prosecutors present their case to jurors.
Crute, 45, allegedly had been taping students since 1990, police said. He has been suspended without pay from his job at Woodrow Wilson High School.
If convicted, he could be sentenced to 90 years in prison. The trial is scheduled for June25.
- Associated Press
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB